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Before Bill Belichick led the New England Patriots to four Super Bowl victories, he spent five seasons as head coach in Cleveland. The Browns were a combined 36-44 in the regular season and 1-1 in the playoffs during that time.
Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones recently referenced the early part of Belichick's career while answering a question about Jason Garrett.
In five and a half seasons as the Cowboys head coach, Garrett has compiled a 45-43 regular season record and a 1-1 postseason mark.
"First of all, I think Jason is one of the up and coming coaches in this league. We're fortunate to have him," Jones said Friday morning on CBS Sports Radio's Tiki and Tierney Show. "I think obviously Jason went through some growing pains. If you look at some of the great coaches in this league, I mean, Belichick's first stop was not necessarily what we think of when you think of Bill Belichick.
"[Garrett] has all the skillsets, it's just a matter of getting seasoned and I think he's at that point. ... I do think he's turning into a great football coach. I just think he's come so far. I think it's all in front of him and he's only going to get better."
Here are a few other highlights from Jones' radio interview.
On the multiple suspensions on defense:
"I think at the end of the day, we're willing to take risks as an organization. (Charles Haley, Michael Irvin and Dez Bryant were mentioned) ... When you take some risks, you're going to have some things that bite you. I think last year, if you take the disappointing season we had and then you've got some guys who may get into gray areas, then it bites a little bit harder.
"But when you're in our business, you're dealing with human beings. I wouldn't necessarily say these guys are bad guys. These guys have sicknesses. We have infrastructure in place. Sometimes it's a longer journey than you suspect, and certainly that's what happened with a couple of our defenders here. Then of course with Greg Hardy we just made the decision that it just wasn't going to work out here.
"It's certainly fair. It's certainly a valid criticism. It's certainly one we'll continue to evaluate and see how we can do a better job going forward of having more successes than we do disappointments, but we stand by our guys and we'll continue to work with them and see if they can overcome some of these demons that they have and go on to be successful players in this league. If they don't, then obviously we'll have to move on from them."
On last year's 4-12 finish:
"We just, organizationally, failed. Not only the players, but more than that, our coaches, our management, Jerry and myself. We did not show the right leadership there. Going forward, we need to focus who's playing in the game, not who's injured, not who's suspended, not who's around and then design game plans, design ways to win a football game to those skills and those talents. We just 100 percent failed in that area.
"I know Jason has been the first to raise his hand with his staff. I know Jerry and I raise our hand in terms of the leadership we should've provided. We were too worried about when Tony might come back. When Dez is going to finally work his way into form. When we're going to get this player back. 'Boy, it would've been nice to have [Lance] Dunbar.' We can't have those types of distractions.
"We got to focus on who's here, who's on the field, who's playing the game and then go from there. We've won games in the past without Troy Aikman and gone onto the playoffs. We've won games without Tony. We had [Jon] Kitna and he had a great run, got us into the playoffs, then Tony came back. We just didn't have that mentality last year. We've got to improve on that."
On not winning a Super Bowl since 1995:
"In all seriousness, there is a real urgency. Obviously you talk about a guy like Coach Garrett, every day is urgent to him. He's the hardest worker in the building. Then you go to Tony, who I think is obviously in the prime of his career, but he doesn't have forever when you go past that 35-year mark. Of course Jerry is so intense and it obviously bleeds down to myself and the rest of the organization in terms of the urgency that we have right now.
"There's never been urgency like there is right now in terms of our football team. We really feel great that we put a really solid football team together. Are we strong in every area? No, we're not. We understand our pass rush needs some help, but we've got a great coach there that I think will get the most out of our players. But we also have some areas where I think we're one of the strongest teams in the league. ... So we feel good about this team. We think if things fall right we can certainly challenge for a Super Bowl. Obviously that's our end goal."
Take that haters! They obviously believe they can get blood from a turnip and we can all just STFU!
linky-link
Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones recently referenced the early part of Belichick's career while answering a question about Jason Garrett.
In five and a half seasons as the Cowboys head coach, Garrett has compiled a 45-43 regular season record and a 1-1 postseason mark.
"First of all, I think Jason is one of the up and coming coaches in this league. We're fortunate to have him," Jones said Friday morning on CBS Sports Radio's Tiki and Tierney Show. "I think obviously Jason went through some growing pains. If you look at some of the great coaches in this league, I mean, Belichick's first stop was not necessarily what we think of when you think of Bill Belichick.
"[Garrett] has all the skillsets, it's just a matter of getting seasoned and I think he's at that point. ... I do think he's turning into a great football coach. I just think he's come so far. I think it's all in front of him and he's only going to get better."
Here are a few other highlights from Jones' radio interview.
On the multiple suspensions on defense:
"I think at the end of the day, we're willing to take risks as an organization. (Charles Haley, Michael Irvin and Dez Bryant were mentioned) ... When you take some risks, you're going to have some things that bite you. I think last year, if you take the disappointing season we had and then you've got some guys who may get into gray areas, then it bites a little bit harder.
"But when you're in our business, you're dealing with human beings. I wouldn't necessarily say these guys are bad guys. These guys have sicknesses. We have infrastructure in place. Sometimes it's a longer journey than you suspect, and certainly that's what happened with a couple of our defenders here. Then of course with Greg Hardy we just made the decision that it just wasn't going to work out here.
"It's certainly fair. It's certainly a valid criticism. It's certainly one we'll continue to evaluate and see how we can do a better job going forward of having more successes than we do disappointments, but we stand by our guys and we'll continue to work with them and see if they can overcome some of these demons that they have and go on to be successful players in this league. If they don't, then obviously we'll have to move on from them."
On last year's 4-12 finish:
"We just, organizationally, failed. Not only the players, but more than that, our coaches, our management, Jerry and myself. We did not show the right leadership there. Going forward, we need to focus who's playing in the game, not who's injured, not who's suspended, not who's around and then design game plans, design ways to win a football game to those skills and those talents. We just 100 percent failed in that area.
"I know Jason has been the first to raise his hand with his staff. I know Jerry and I raise our hand in terms of the leadership we should've provided. We were too worried about when Tony might come back. When Dez is going to finally work his way into form. When we're going to get this player back. 'Boy, it would've been nice to have [Lance] Dunbar.' We can't have those types of distractions.
"We got to focus on who's here, who's on the field, who's playing the game and then go from there. We've won games in the past without Troy Aikman and gone onto the playoffs. We've won games without Tony. We had [Jon] Kitna and he had a great run, got us into the playoffs, then Tony came back. We just didn't have that mentality last year. We've got to improve on that."
On not winning a Super Bowl since 1995:
"In all seriousness, there is a real urgency. Obviously you talk about a guy like Coach Garrett, every day is urgent to him. He's the hardest worker in the building. Then you go to Tony, who I think is obviously in the prime of his career, but he doesn't have forever when you go past that 35-year mark. Of course Jerry is so intense and it obviously bleeds down to myself and the rest of the organization in terms of the urgency that we have right now.
"There's never been urgency like there is right now in terms of our football team. We really feel great that we put a really solid football team together. Are we strong in every area? No, we're not. We understand our pass rush needs some help, but we've got a great coach there that I think will get the most out of our players. But we also have some areas where I think we're one of the strongest teams in the league. ... So we feel good about this team. We think if things fall right we can certainly challenge for a Super Bowl. Obviously that's our end goal."
Take that haters! They obviously believe they can get blood from a turnip and we can all just STFU!
linky-link
